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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/world/europe/01turkey.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Turkey Court Takes Politically Explosive Case
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: April 1, 2008
ISTANBUL — Turkey’s highest court said Monday it had decided to take a case on closing Turkey’s governing party and banning its top political leaders, moving the country closer to a final confrontation between religious and secular Turks over who will rule Turkey.
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Times Topics: Turkey
Alifeyyaz Paksut, deputy chairman of the court, known as the Constitutional Court, said its justices had voted unanimously to hear the case, which was filed by Turkey’s top prosecutor on March 14.
The case calls for the closure of the Justice and Development Party, and the banning from politics of 71 party members, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erodgan and his ally, President Abdullah Gul, from politics.
Turkey has shut down other parties in the past. In 1998, it banned the Welfare Party, an openly Islamist group that claimed Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Gul as members, and has also banned Kurdish parties. But Mr. Erdogan’s current party maintains that it is secular, having moved away from its earlier involvement with political Islam.
The court’s acceptance of the case significantly increases the chances that the party, which was elected to power in 2002 and remains highly popular, could be closed. Turkey’s secular establishment — its courts, military and parts of government bureaucracy — are struggling with it for power.
Staunchly secular Turkish politicians tried to block Mr. Gul from the presidency this spring, but were routed in national elections in July, and now are trying to obstruct the party through the legal system where they still have immense sway. Eight of the 11 judges on the constitutional court were appointed by Mr. Gul’s predecessor, Ahmed Necdet Sezer, who was a strong opponent of the party.
Monday’s acceptance raised troubling new questions about the future of the party, but its closure was still considered unlikely.
Turkey’s secular bureaucracy has closed political parties in the past, but none were as broadly popular as Mr. Erdogan’s, which won nearly 47 percent of the national vote in July, the most in decades.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/world/europe/01turkey.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Turkey Court Takes Politically Explosive Case
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: April 1, 2008
ISTANBUL — Turkey’s highest court said Monday it had decided to take a case on closing Turkey’s governing party and banning its top political leaders, moving the country closer to a final confrontation between religious and secular Turks over who will rule Turkey.
Skip to next paragraph
Related
Times Topics: Turkey
Alifeyyaz Paksut, deputy chairman of the court, known as the Constitutional Court, said its justices had voted unanimously to hear the case, which was filed by Turkey’s top prosecutor on March 14.
The case calls for the closure of the Justice and Development Party, and the banning from politics of 71 party members, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erodgan and his ally, President Abdullah Gul, from politics.
Turkey has shut down other parties in the past. In 1998, it banned the Welfare Party, an openly Islamist group that claimed Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Gul as members, and has also banned Kurdish parties. But Mr. Erdogan’s current party maintains that it is secular, having moved away from its earlier involvement with political Islam.
The court’s acceptance of the case significantly increases the chances that the party, which was elected to power in 2002 and remains highly popular, could be closed. Turkey’s secular establishment — its courts, military and parts of government bureaucracy — are struggling with it for power.
Staunchly secular Turkish politicians tried to block Mr. Gul from the presidency this spring, but were routed in national elections in July, and now are trying to obstruct the party through the legal system where they still have immense sway. Eight of the 11 judges on the constitutional court were appointed by Mr. Gul’s predecessor, Ahmed Necdet Sezer, who was a strong opponent of the party.
Monday’s acceptance raised troubling new questions about the future of the party, but its closure was still considered unlikely.
Turkey’s secular bureaucracy has closed political parties in the past, but none were as broadly popular as Mr. Erdogan’s, which won nearly 47 percent of the national vote in July, the most in decades.
